Three Lives in Phrases
by Haru-Artemis
Summary: What might have happened. What could have happened, but didn't. A closer look into Panty, Stocking and Brief's lives if their story wasn't written for a comedy script. Song lyric drabbles. Panty X Brief


I swore I'll never publish this and look at what a liar I am to myself OTL

Written on a whim after binging through the series in a day to vent my frustrations at the ending. Seriously Gainax, what kind of ass-pull was that?

I've had four prompts- song lyric prompts, which are pretty fun fora challenge. Panty, Stocking and Brief are my favourites so this drabble is theirs~

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**"Come and hold me close. I'm shivering cold in the heart of rain" **

She does not think as she leans in close for the kiss.

Even as he embraces her, the whole situation was beyond absurd. Her eyes remain open, sharp and gleaming even though his remain closed as his hands find her shoulders in a gentle embrace. Hungrily, she cups his face and whispers between breaths.

"How do I know? How do I know that after everything, you won't throw me away like Garterbelt did? Like Stocking did?"

Brief pulls away from her lips, and gives her a look she has never quite seen on another man's face. His silence only fuels her ire, and her voice very nearly cracks as she clutches the fabric of his shirt to keep herself from shaking.

"You've only stuck on because you want to fuck me."

Something raw glints back at her in those jewels the world calls eyes.

"Panty. You really don't know what love is, do you?"

Before him, nobody has seen her at her worst.

**"Now all that's left of me is what I pretend to be"**

She keeps a count of each time her sister lays waste to men. After all, she simply couldn't trust Panty to stretch her brain cells to the point of mathematic capability.

"Nine-hundred and forty eight," Stocking says as she watches Panty fuck a man in their car.

When it's done, Stocking walks over and gives her sister a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. Panty, still drunk on the aftermath of sex, doesn't bitterness in Stocking's voice as she relays the count goes unnoticed by Panty. After all, Panty has slept with nine-hundred and forty eight men since coming descending from heaven.

She is too elated to care that the only man her little sister had loved is dead. Each number added to the count drives a stake in her cold stone of a heart as a reminder.

The emotion is unwelcome, but as always, Panty never notices. And Stocking is tired of waiting for her sister to care.

"Fifty two more to go," she says instead. "Yipee."

**"I'm your biggest fan. I'll follow you until you love me"**

The first thing he notices is not her curvaceous body, not her suggestive posture, but her vibrant blue eyes.

Though she looks down at him in contempt, Brief knows from the moment he laid eyes on her that he has fallen in love. Even as she lies in front of him, bruised, battered and soaked by the rain, he still looks upon her with the fierce adoration he held when he first met her.

Hesitantly, he reaches into his bag and pulls out the only umbrella he has—the one she had carelessly bent a few days ago in a mad fit of joy. It had been simpler times when Stocking was still by her side.

"U-um..." As he stares at the love of his life, Brief ponders endlessly for something to say. He doesn't need to.

Panty wrenches the umbrella from his grasp and pushes him into the mud.

**"I want your love and I want your revenge. I want your love. I don't wanna be friends"**

There is no love.

Panty has long since realized the fact even before she was banished from heaven. Love is an alien concept to her. It does not exist. For the first good portions of her life, she has always mistaken lust for love. She rode boys, deluding herself into thinking they were dating. It is only when Stocking announces what exactly the concept of courtship did she realize what a splendid fool she made of herself. It was a like a slap on the face. And the aftermath still stings her even now.

Hearing the confirmation from Brief's lips (the pair she just kissed) sends her in a burst of violent rage. She inspires his cheek with a slap of her own. When he doesn't react, she slaps him again, and again, and again.

His cheeks are now swelling from the impact of her hits, but Brief just stands there and takes it.

When she exhausts herself enough to stop her blows, Panty pulls away from him. "You understand nothing, Brief," she says icily.

"You're the one who doesn't understand anything," Brief replies quietly. "I've never once saw you as an object."

He stops the incoming waves of insults she is about to throw at him with but four words.

"I love you, Panty."

She would have screamed and kicked and splatter his brains on the pavement for telling her such an obvious lie, for mocking her like that, for giving her false hope. But when Brief hoisted her into his arms, when he pressed his lips to hers, and when Panty lost all restraint and wits and pulled Brief closer- as close as she could get to him, and Panty clung to him for dear life, sobbing every frustration she had.

When Brief admits his feelings, that he can actually love Panty after all the torment she put him through, all the insults she flung at him, all the love letters she ripped before him, Panty admits something she's never once thought for a very long time.

That maybe...

Maybe...

She is worthy of love.

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The songs are: 'Everytime You Kissed Me' by Emily Bindiger, 'Behind These Hazel Eyes' by Kelly Clarkson, 'Paparazzi' by Lady Gaga, and 'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga.

Hope you've enjoyed it! I may consider continuing this.


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